Rating: 
Summary: Boring and lacks imagination...
Review: I have read many of Patterson's law enforcement thrillers, and much historical fiction. This attempt by Mr. Patterson and Mr. Gross lacks the imagination, suspense, character development, and detailed historical landscape that comes so brilliantly to the likes of Umberto Eco, Iain Pears, and Michael Faber. The Jester is, quite honestly, BORING, predictable, preposterous, and uninspired. Patterson's Hugh De Luc is not the least bit original--he is stale. The development of this main character lacks direction and never really changes. How tiring is it to read, every time Hugh is in a jam, "I knew I was going to die"? In spite of the tragedies that befell Hugh, he never truly garnered a sympathetic emotion from this reader. The foreshadowing in the early chapters is obvious, making each page thereafter bromidic. The plot can best be decribed as "moth-eaten", though I won't detail the formulary to those who may still be interested in reading this book (they will know it within a few pages anyway). Of the hundreds of terrific reads in the genre of historical fiction/suspense, Patterson's latest is certainly not one of them. Very disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining Historical Fiction
Review: Known for his terse, simply worded mystery novels, Patterson deviates greatly from the norm to pen this historical tale of romance and deception in eleventh century France. With a first person account of poor innkeeper, Hugh De Luc, Patterson probes the force behind a relic of the crusades and the loss of lives when greed consumes those who desire this relic. Leaving behind his young wife Sophie, Hugh journeys east to join the crusaders in their quest to quench the Turks. With the passage of two years until his return, Hugh discovers that his wife is missing, and a band of marauders murdered the son he never knew. His vengeful path leads him into the arms of Lady Emilie, a lady in waiting to Anne, wife of Stephen of the duchy of Boree. Training as a jester, Hugh travels to Treille to confront Lord Baldwin, the man he holds responsible for Sophie's abduction. With his wit and charm, Hugh infiltrates himself into Baldwin's home as a jester and subsequently leads the people of his hometown to defend their property. Mystery fans beware, for the only mystery element present here lies in the discovery of Sophie's tormentor and the knowledge of the relic that Hugh doesn't even know he carries. But his fast-paced tale, devoid of eleventh century language, proves true to Patterson's quick plot summaries and enigmatic characters. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition
Rating: 
Summary: You'll see it coming
Review: This is a rather unhistorical historical romance. Set in the period of the early crusades, to which the principal character is attracted for not wholly understandable reasons, and in which he performs in a somewhat confused and confusing fashion before returning to France where he finds his world in shambles, while throughout he somehow manages to entangle his life with the aristocracy. All of this is a framework for a boy gets girl romantic plot, and is designed, despite the gore, as a "feel - good" tale. But it could not happen and even if it did, it should not have happened; it violates plausability. Historical fiction owes something to the reality of the history.Yes knights were professional killers, yes the crusaders behaved like louts, yes there was a trade and lust after relics, but this is a stretcher. More accurate detail would be welcome. A little example: what was the status of inns and innkeepers at this time? Virtually non-existant, I would guess. And the results of a peasant uprising such as climaxes the tale would be far different. Consider the fate of Wat Tyler in England 350 years later. But we can guess the outcome in this story. All the clues are there early. I will not spoil it for you, but when you see the beast coming over the hill and think, "No! It could not be an elephant!" remember, I told you, "It is!"
Rating: 
Summary: OK but VIOLENT!
Review: OK is about all I can say about The Jester. I have loved James Patterson's previous novels ( I have a shelf just for him!)and being a Medievalist I was totally anticipating a wonderful book. Sadly, I was disappointed. The violence is almost too much to bare at times. The basic story behind all of the gratuitus violence, rape and murder has promise. But frankly, after wading through the atrocities mentioned I was just trying to make it to the end of the book. If you are an avid fan of James Patterson as I am, go ahead and get the hardback. If not, wait until the paperback or borrow from a friend.
Rating:
Summary: First and last Patterson novel
Review: Never having read James Patterson before, and being a devoted fan of good historical fiction, I decided to give The Jester a whirl. Although I liked the short chapters and the plot concepts were good, it severely lacked significant detail and persuasion. I was looking for something in line with Ken Follett's great historical novel, Pillars Of The Earth, and I was disappointed with The Jester. I'll take a long, leisurely, detailed fiction any day as opposed to this so called "page-turner".
Rating:
Summary: So bad I laid it down . . .
Review: I'm a Patterson fan. This one, however, was not readable. I only finished 100 pages and finally gave up. The writing was flat, the story was dull, the characters were uninteresting. Perhaps it would get better in the end, but I did not care to find out.
Rating:
Summary: Average
Review: Although I have never read any books by this particular author, the concept of the story was very interesting to me. Like several other reviews, I also felt the child slayings at the start of book were almost enough to put it down.
I was dissapoionted at the lack of time spent on the developemnt of the main chatacter's "pretext", as a Jester.
I did feel the last 100 pages were the best and most interesting.
This story is a very quick and average read.
Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: No long dissertation just hope he will get back to what he does best and this isn't it! First Patterson writing I haven't completed and enjoyed.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the same old Patterson
Review: If you picked up this book thinking you were going to get an engrossing mystery, you didn't read the front cover. This "historical novel" from Patterson was just what I expected. Brutally graphic, a plausible plot, characters that you want to remember, and a great way to spend a few hours of escape from current events. Patterson has a way with keeping the reader involved. While I will agree with another reviewer that the chapters were sometimes too short to maintain a good pace, it didn't keep me from being entertained. The desciptions of the difficulties facing the average person in that time period were perfect for this read. If you want to spend all your time with Alex Cross or the girls in the Murder Club, so be it. But if you want to take a welcome respite from the usual serial murderer that tends to permeate a Patterson novel, then pick this book up. You may just learn something about history while enjoying a good story.
Rating:
Summary: Hated this one
Review: I could not get past the violence--after first 50 pages or so I tossed it... not a book to read given today's world events... only lesson to learn is that we have not yet gotten civilized enough to stop the bloodshed for a holy cause... I have enjoyed all of Patterson's books and picked this one up just for his name.. very disappointed.
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